Nickel

Nickel – silver-white metal, the fifth most common element on Earth. Nevertheless, the major part of the nickel deposits is inaccessible, since it is hidden in the nucleus. Nickel is widely used for consumer, industrial, transport, aerospace, military, marine, construction, domestic and other purposes. It is used in nickel electroplating (creating a nickel layer on the surface of other metals to avoid their corrosion).

Physical characteristics and application:

* Source: Nornickel statistics

Despite the rapid development of the electric car segment, stainless steel production remains the main industry for nickel application. Stainless steel production accounts for more than 2/3 of the demand for nickel the demand in the industry is still growing. This trend also adds to the increasing demand for nickel, but according to the experts the situation on electric car market that influence nickel price on the financial market.

Nickel global production

* Source: 2020 Horizonte Minerals

* Source: Nornickel statistics

Nickel quotation

From the start of the year, nickel prices started to move upwards and nickel is the best performing base metal of 2019. Indeed nickel has been growing gradually starting 2019 until the end of the year. This means that the nickel price grew up around 70-80% on average for the first 3Q 2019 until if faced a decline by the end of the year.